Fresh off the plane from Germany, Zia is our newest addition. She will begin her IPO training immediately, and upon successful completion of health tests, will join our breeding program. We are excited for this new addition, and grateful to Gerhard and Heide Funck for trusting us with one of their own. We hope you will follow Zia’s progress here, on Facebook, and on Working Dog.

Today I received two separate messages from two puppy owners. They reminded me, WHY we do what we do.

“They do it for the money,” say the ignorant and the haters. Yes, THAT’S IT! I think as I check my bank balance. It’s NOT very high. I’m happy if it’s not in the overdraft!

I tell people all the time, our kennel name “Leidenschaft” is the German word for PASSION, not bank account.

So what keeps us going through the failed AI matings, the false pregnancies, the silent heats, the 2-year-old stud-to-be who fails a health test and needs to be rehomed…

What keeps us going through the anxious moments of the first few days of a litter? Carefully checking weight gains, watching the little ones get time on a teat… What keeps us going when government regulations thwart us at every turn, and one airline’s rules are not the same as the next? What keeps us going when the haters hate, and the ignorant believe?

The Lovers! That’s what. The ones who message us with their new puppy’s first EVERYTHING! The ones who send us photos, and video clips, and private messages that say: “Sorry to gush so much, but really we’re over the moon!” To which I immediately replied, “Gush away! It helps us through those sleepless nights.”

We are breeders, and as such, we appreciate the breeders who entrust us with THEIR offspring. We do our best with their puppies, nurturing them, training them, bringing them up in a happy, healthy environment, so that they may go on to be the parents of the next generations of Leidenschaft puppies.

It’s not easy, it’s not cheap; sometimes it’s downright heartbreaking. So here’s to the Lovers. You know who you are, and you are deeply appreciated.